Diagonaldi Very well executed

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Predrag The story (written by Larry Cohen of "It's Alive" fame) is just about as straightforward as you can get: a guy's dressing up as a cop and going out and hacking the stuffing out of people, first at random, then with a clear vendetta in mind. Tom Atkins plays the tough as nails but honest as a boy-scout detective who decides he's got to unravel the whole thing, even if it means airing out some dirty laundry at the mayor's office. Along the way, Bruce Campbell turns up as the prime suspect, and he's determined to prove his innocence! The pace is great, especially at the beginning where some films will bog you down with trying to get to know their one dimensional characters as if that has any relevance in a film like this. Nope, Maniac Cop doesn't pretend its characters are people it gets right down to the nitty gritty of murdering victims. Murder, meet Tom Atkins and see that his boss doesn't like him much, murder, get to see a couple more scenes of Atkins, murder, hello this is Bruce Campbell he could be the killer but murder happens and it's not likely he did it. No stringing you along, no pretension that this is anything but a slasher film through and through. While we're on the topic of murder, the killings are all done well. There's not an especially high level of variety or creativity to them, but it's not a film that calls for that kind of thing anyway. There's stranglings, stabbings, hangings, quite down to earth, almost even realistic within the story. The level of gore is also just right.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

nzswanny So, I started watching the movie thinking it'll be terrible, and so the movie started off with a cop dressing up. I thought that it was an okay credits scene, and so the movie starts off with a woman walking along the streets. Some criminals come and try to take her money, and she starts running away from them. They come chasing after her, and so she suddenly runs into the maniac cop, the villain of the movie. Predictably, he kills her. And so, that's how the movie starts, and myself I thought the start was...meh. And so, about several minutes later, it felt like a million death scenes just happened in 14 minutes. Now, to be honest the first 15 minutes is complete garbage and not connected to the story AT ALL. It was just about the maniac cop killing everyone for 15 minutes, and I was about to switch the movie off in five minutes when suddenly, the movie actually got to the story! I was so happy, and so we have a detective trying to figure out who is killing everyone. Great! And we also have a woman that finds her husband cheating on her, and she think's he is the maniac cop! I thought the man that cheated on her would be the maniac cop, but no, I was proved wrong in the end! Although, I can't quite tell you the twist now, can I? I thought so :) anyway, this movie is brilliant after the first fifteen minutes of garbage. You'll love this movie, and the twist may be predictable for horror fans, but it won't be predictable for most people. I am really glad this movie got a trilogy, and I do hope that if they ever make a Maniac Cop 4 and 5 they will not ruin the series, also if you want to go see an action movie, don't watch this. This isn't an action. It's not even really a horror, actually. It's a mystery. Although, because of the twist I would call it a horror. 10/10 if you include out the first 15 minutes.

ivo-cobra8 Maniac Cop is definitely a cult classic horror action flick from the 80's.In New York a man dressed as a police officer is killing innocent civilians. Jack Forrest is a cop and gets framed, the real killer is Matt Cordell, a cop who was sent to prison for brutality and ended up getting killed inside. Forrest, his piece on the side Theresa and detective Frank McCrea try to solve the case, before the maniac cop kills again.Maniac Cop is a 1988 American action-slasher film directed by William Lustig and written by Larry Cohen. It stars Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith, Robert Z'Dar, and Sheree North. Z'Dar plays the title character, a murderous ex-cop who returns from the dead, chased by his former co-workers. It was released on May 13, 1988, and grossed $671,382 from a budget of $1.1 million. Maniac Cop still is a cult film today.I seriously love this action Horror film. Tom Atkins,Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon did definitely the best acting job. Specially Robert Z'Dar who plays Maniac Cop, a murderous ex-cop who returns from the dead, chased by his former co-workers did a terrific job one of his best roles I have ever saw. I love the sequels but for me this one is the best in the series. The acting in this film is pretty decent good for a 80's slasher horror flick. Jack Forrest is played by the legend Evil Dead trilogy Bruce Campbell. Campbell is one of the few actors that can make even the worst of films watchable, and makes any good film like this that much better. After the Evil Dead movies and Army of Darkness this is Campbell's best work. Genre legend Tom Atkins is perfectly cast as McCrea, Atkins starred in some of my very favorite 80's movies including The Fog, Escape From New York, Lethal Weapon and obviously this. He was also the main star of the underrated Halloween 3 Season Of The Witch, a film that would probably be quite well liked if they had left Halloween out of the title. He also played in another horror flick that I do like very much My Bloody Valentine 3D. Richard Roundtree who is better known as Shaft is good in a small role as commissioner Pike, Laurene Landon, William Smith and Sheree North give good support. Robert Z'Dar who looks like a real life Quagmire from Family Guy, is a huge man and is very effective as the supernatural Matt Cordell.Maniac Cop is definitely William Lustig's and Bruce Campbell's best Action Horror fun flick from the 80's. I really miss the 80's because back than they had much better action horror slasher films. 10/10

verbusen This is a pretty low budget film and the ONLY reason why I watched this was to see Bruce Campbell, William Smith, and Robert Z'Dar. I actually got here because of Robert Z'Dar who I saw in Tango and Cash and looked up his films and this is like his highest rated film. Maybe it's his highest rated film because he's only in this the last minutes and he has no speaking roles? None that I remember. Which is saying a lot about this film since I just watched this and already have forgotten a lot of it. I will say this as a positive, it's a decent date film and the blond in this is pretty hot. It's not that bloody at all which is cool with me. As far as why I wanted to watch this, Bruce Campbell is the best part of the film, he's cool. However I was really disappointed about William Smith. Here he is in his late 50's in his real life but looks like he's in his late 70's. He looks like he just had chemotherapy, maybe he did. He looks rough and doesn't give his role any of that Falconetti awesome bad guy treatment, you don't really know if he's a bad guy or what until the end, very disappointed at his performance. To sum it up, I did stay interested but after watching it all realized this was a pretty lame B action flick. 6 of 10. Maybe the sequel is actually better if they make the Maniac a demon or something, that might be fun to watch.